Many related art water devices exist for covering or protecting surfaces from water penetration. These include waterproof coverings different surfaces and coatings. Similarly there are numerous protective courses which are applied over the waterproof surface to protect it.
On the other hand, it is known that bitumen-based membranes are used for waterproofing in construction. Such membranes normally feature a reinforcement made of non-woven polyester cloth or of a layer of reinforced glass such as fiberglass. One of the membrane surfaces is coated with small slate flakes of various colors, similar to granules, for protection against ultraviolet rays.
The users of these types of membranes currently face serious problems when trying to seal together contiguous membranes because of the relatively complex steps that must be carried out to connect the two contiguous or adjacent ends. Of course, if an effective seal is not attained, the membrane system will leak and not achieve its very purpose.
Most of membranes known in the art for waterproofing a structure or a surface need the release of one part, such as a non-adherent sheet on one face of a impervious layer before application on the surface.
Waterproofing membranes are generally obtained in sheets of 3, 4 or 5 mm thickness and, if total or partial adhesion to the support is required, they can be applied either by means of a propane-gas torch, which by liquefying the bituminous mass makes it adherent to the support, or by using hot air-blown bitumen which acts as an adhesive.
However, while membranes based on bitumen modified with styrene-butanediene-styrene (SBS) yield good results with both methods (with preference for the air-blown bitumen method, due to some limitations of the SBS membrane with the torch method, such as excessive softening which almost always prevents rapid and easy application of the membrane, especially in summer), it is recognized that polyolefin-based membranes generally yield the best results only with the flame method; this especially because otherwise, in the course of time, adhesion tends to decrease due to the forming of an oily layer between the air-blown bitumen and the membrane which causes its separation in the course of time.
The problems of hardening the handling during application of waterproofing membranes because of the release of paper or because of the use of a torch demonstrate that there is still an important need in the art for new waterproofing membranes.